Wait till the juries give them more time than they will ever give to Kenny boy.

This is interesting:

... cooperating witnesses went into each of the listed stores and purchased meth ingredients after telling the store clerk or owner that the items were being purchased to make meth. The items bought reportedly included pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, Coleman fuel, ‘Hee’ anti-freeze and matchbooks.

Is your average immigrant convenience store owner going to know what 'meth' is? Or did the witnesses say, 'methamphetamine-- by the way, that's an illegal drug'? Were they on notice, either explicitly or implicitly, that they were not to sell large quantities of these items?

Is your average immigrant convenience store owner going to know what 'meth' is?

Very good point. I missed that.

Is your average immigrant convenience store owner going to know what 'meth' is?

if they live in a rural area they should-meth is probably the #1 cause of burglaries and property crimes (including against small business). also, many states are passing laws about pseudoephedrine, this is in the news a lot because people who sell over the counter drugs are going to be impacted by this a lot (in my state, which is one of the top meth hubs in the country, you can't get pseudoephedrine drugs in solid form without showing ID and stuff now).

They can use Sudafed to make meth as well there are a lot of Over the counter drugs you can get to synthesize methane in your home grown Bhatti. My aunt is a pharmacologist and she pointed out like 20 OTC medications in a grocery store once that could be used to make drugs (the illegal ones, the ones the govt. decides can't be exploited for money so they decide to illegalize them)

Horseshit... they didn't do anything illegal. This can't possibly hold up in court: why should shopkeepers be held responsible for their customers? If I bought a baseball bat from a sporting goods store and used it to beat someone to death, should the store owner be punished as well?

Unless the store owners actually gave the undercover officers instruction on how to make meth, there shouldn't be a case.

1) remember, the story said they told them they were purchasing it to buy meth (true or not, but there should be videotaple if it is a normal convenience store).

2) quantity is usually the issue from what i know-if someone is buying stuff in bulk that's a good clue as to what's going on.

Convenience stores don't usually carry audio just black and white video and a timecode to save on costs. But maybe...
Really doubt that if these fellas were storeowners there should be any case against them.
Police should just learn to not be idiots and put some salt with the pepper.

... there should be videotaple...

In the past, convenience store surveillance cameras usually didn't have audio. Do they have it now?

Here's a local paper that calls the people arrested "low-hanging fruit", which sounds right to me.

Jeez, why don't they go after the dealers?

A lot of these guys may not know that it's against the law to sell ingredients if they know what they'll be used for. Oh well -- it's still against the law, and I think they'll still go to jail based on the evidence of the undercover officers. (The presence of audio may be immaterial.)

If it were me, this might be the moment where I bust out the "Me no speakee English" defense.

Still, it seems to me this isn't a "ring" they've rounded up, it's a bunch of stupid convenience store workers who are not even connected to each other. It's also not correct to call them "low hanging fruit," since these people aren't in any strict sense involved with the production or distribution of the drug.

Is there any evidence that this is a "ring"?

This is ridiculous. I don't see how it's a ring if they are merely selling the commonplace ingredients that go into making this substance. Did they say, "Yes, go ahead, boys and gals, do illegal things with these items" and make meth kinda money on their sale?

Selling the disparate and unexceptional components for an illegal drug doesn't constitute selling the drug itself. Hope the "justice" system can see this.

Some of these stores had meth kits.. those stores did know what was going on. Some stocked all the meth ingredients in bulk and close to each other. Source Some of them were guilty. However it's hard to believe 72 yr old men and women were involved in this.

This is what I believe happened. The average store owner notices an increased demand for cough syrup and associated ingredients and he starts stocking them and selling them at inflated prices to make a killing.

I wonder if (they must have) the police carried out an awareness campaign, distributing information to be aware of the meth situation in the state and listing the ingredients associated with meth production. If the cops did that and the store owners continued selling the ingredients in bulk, then they are guilty. They were miusing the law thinking that selling common over the counter drugs is legal and they can't be touched. If the cop's didn't do that, most of them will be acquitted and the federal govt will have a lawsuit up their nether orifice.

This is a terrible thing for the desi community, Average Joe SixPack will tag all sepias as gay terrorist loving' drug dealers now.

Meth Conviction precedents elsewhere

This is what I believe happened. The average store owner notices an increased demand for cough syrup and associated ingredients and he starts stocking them and selling them at inflated prices to make a killing.

Yep. I'd buy that. How many of us know an Indian uncle that would probably do the same thing and just look the other way if they suspected a bit of shadiness? A few blackmarket deals never hurt anyone right? Think of all the pirated videos at Indian stores.

Still I believe the entire policy sucks. Go after the dealers first and then the users. The guys with the raw materials shouldn't be the main target when they are otherwise running a legit establishment.

Selective prosecution is always a possibility when 43 out of 49 people belong to one minority ethnicity.
I mean we all knew that these Hindoos were upto no good. I shudder to think what a jury of their 'peers' would look like.

“I want to know why they went after the Indians to begin with,” said Sadow

There is a very simple reason why the Indians were swept up first in this deal.
A good old southern christian jury is way more likely to convict Indians then some good old boy from Roma, Georgia.

If it turns out that these people WERE in fact selling meth-kits knowing fully well that(and not just randomly selling ingredients) then, by all means, punish them for breaking the law.

I disagree with Al Mujahid: if the Hindoos are up to no good, then throw their asses in jail.

Dumb question:

What is a meth kit, and how is it remotely plausible to sell it in a convenience store?

I just got forwarded this link in an email to me. It has some more details.

Yep. I'd buy that. How many of us know an Indian uncle that would probably do the same thing and just look the other way if they suspected a bit of shadiness? A few blackmarket deals never hurt anyone right? Think of all the pirated videos at Indian stores.

And how many of us have been to a store run by a desi Uncle where the desi employees are told what to do and really exercise no discretion of their own or don't necessarily have a clue about many things. As someone mentioned above, it wasn't just the owners that were prosecuted here.

Anyway, it's hard to draw any conclusions about this without knowing exactly what happened--and specifically what was said during the interactions between the undercover agents and the people selling the goods. However, it is shady that the figures are skewed by ethnicity, that immigration is involved in this (harder to press a civil suit contending discrimination if you're in India ;), that they decided to run a "send a message" arrest sweep on a community that was probably easier to target, etc. Unless these people disproportionately own the convenience stores in Northern Georgia and the areas of Tennessee that were targeted (which, as was stated in the post, is really possible), it smacks of the need for at least more information. Plus there's the broader question of whether enforcement tactics like this are effective in reducing addictions (of all kinds, not just to illegal drugs) and consequently whether the so-called war on drugs is worth the cost.

btw, here's a hilarious article about a Tennessee county government official that was apparently moonlighting as a meth dealer.

Damning news report

On Aug. 6, 2004, sources said they bought 29 36-tab boxes of Max Brand Pseudo 60's and two boxes of 1,000-count matchbooks from Harshadkum Patel. The sources said Patel added up the sale on his calculator, not the cash register, and pocketed the money. Patel told the men he could get them a room at a motel on Exit 350 in Catoosa County to "do what you do ... a lot of people do it there."

If all this on tape, most of these guys are screwed.

Motel on exit 350? I checked google maps.. it shows a super 8 and a comfort inn. Dunno if they are owned by desis. There is a considerable amount of hostility towards meth peddlers on the net(because of the horrific side effects of meth) and I am afraid this will lead to some violence against desis. I read quite a few responses on WASP forums that went "they can't blow up our kids with bombs, so now they are poisoning them with meth" Apu = Gay-Terrorist Lovin'-Drug Dealer. Time to put up an American flag and "say no to drugs" bumper stickers.

The people who sold these ingredients probably didn't realize the effect of their actions, most likely because no one in their family was affected by it. Doesn't justify it though, some of them do deserve to go to jail. The people who did this are no different from the food-adultering sobs that kill kids in India. Greed kills.

Let's hope no innocents are caught up in this. Feds were involved in this for over a year so it's unlikely that this will be another Tulia

Ok - so the WHOLESALE distributor of Sudafed, Nyquil, etc wasn't aware that this region was ordering the product in higher than average numbers?

The corporation didn't notice their sales have gone up exponentially in this region?

50 shop owners in a ring equals a lot of product sold. The Patels were just the last point of sale. If we looked into the corporation records, we could probably find "rings"
like this all over America.

This is total bullshit, and demonstrates that there are parallel justice systems in this country - any Desi here who has a legal background would be doing a service to their community to look into this case closely and possibly do some pro bono work.

It's good Karma.

Thanks for the link, VV. That information is pretty damning on the specifics if it's accurate and fair (it is coming from a government affadavit used for prosecution, after all)--at least as applied to those particular people that are cited in it. They certainly sound like dealers (and fairly bad ones, at that) and it's hard to have much emotional sympathy for some of these people (i.e. the ones with some wealth, store ownership, citizenship, etc.)--they didn't really need to be doing that. Still doesn't mean they should go to jail for 10 years or whatever it turns out to be for a crime with fairly little violence involved in it (and certainly none directly).

I still want specifics, too, on all the people involved--especially the employees--and a larger context (i.e. how big a problem are these convenience stores in the chain of meth distribution and addiction). I also wonder how these people are supposed to get a fair trial if the government is leaking very specific evidence against them to the press.

...any Desi here who has a legal background would be doing a service to their community to look into this case closely and possibly do some pro bono work.

It's good Karma.

Totally disagree. They won't be doing me a service. I'd rather they help completely innocent people (and there are many caught up in the system). You can't make defending these people a religious duty by claiming "good karma", especially as evidence mounts that some of them knew what they were doing. Isn't that sort of extremist view what you are always preaching against Truthmissile?

By the way, not to pick on you but doesn't your very name, "Truthmissile," betray your ideals? In various comments you condemn the Bush Administration for its heavy handed policies (i.e. bringing freedom to Iraq by use of bombs and military). If you are attempting to bring "truth" into the discussion than shouldn't "truth" be self-evident as opposed to delivered in the form of a missile to make your opponents submit? This has nothing to do with the post above but I have been thinking about it for a while now. How about "truthbringer." :)

Imagine 50 Apu's in a prison cell.

What is a meth kit, and how is it remotely plausible to sell it in a convenience store?

I'd assume it would be like the "crack kits" that were being sold in Dallas until the cops shut them down. In a paper bag, you'd find a rose inside a test-tube looking holder, a lighter, Brillo pads, a mirror, and other things that you would use to smoke crack or do cocaine. All the things in the bag were legal, but the convenience store workers were getting busted on drug paraphernalia charges.

When they're putting Sudafed into the meth kids, you're past paraphernalia and now getting into ingredients to make the drug itself... if the shopkeepers really knew what they were doing and are guilty, then good that they were arrested. But Truthmissile has a point too: if we are going to arrest the suppliers, let's look further up the chain to the distributors and arrest them as well, because they too must know what's going on when their stock is depleted so quickly in a certain area of the state.

But that would be arresting people from the drug companies themselves, and corporate america would never let that happen. :(

Abhi, Truthmissile is like Lovebomb, it's wonderfully poetic IMO.

Unrelated, the 'love bomb' was a hilarious piece of kitsch:

The US military investigated building a "gay bomb", which would make enemy soldiers "sexually irresistible" to each other, government papers say.

Truthmissile & Andrea
Your observations about the corporations are spot on. May be the feds should install tracking triggers on the sales records of these companies.

They do seem to be doing something about it.

Saurav, from my reading on this issue, these stores are big part of the problem. Georgia Law prohibits sale of more than 3 containers of cold medicine per customer. When these stores violate the law, they make it easier for Meth cooks to make drugs. When they conveniently stock all the items required for meth on a shelf in their stores, it's downright criminal. If a meth cook had to go to 50 stores to get enough ingredients may be the meth production would slow down and the price would go up. If guilty, a term of 10 years is about right.. in a Federal 'Pound me in the Ass' prison. At least that seems to be the precedent.

I am not sure how widespread this problem is and if more desi owners around the country are involved. There seems to be some conspiracy to this, consider that one of the accussed suggested the name of a motel where they could safely do their 'thing' and one of them asked another store owner for more cough syrup when he ran out of stock.

My only concern is for any innocents caught up in this. The Tulia incident happened in '99 and was extremely disturbing. There was a desi lawyer involved in the acquital of the Tulia African Americans. I hope for the Feds sake there wasn't any profiling involved because that would damage the case against the guilt ones.

Punjabi Boy, Apu did go to jail once... (for public nudity I think)

VinodV, cool it with the homophobia, eh?

Average Joe SixPack will tag all sepias as gay terrorist loving' drug dealers now.

If guilty, a term of 10 years is about right.. in a Federal 'Pound me in the Ass' prison.

Totally disagree. They won't be doing me a service. I'd rather they help completely innocent people (and there are many caught up in the system).

Abhi, you think the government never starts out using tactics against the most indefensible people in order to extend them later to people you might sympathize with a bit more? ;) That's the process by which the Bangladeshi woman you posted about got totally f@#$ked. Also, you're convicting these shop owners and workers rather quickly on the basis of media reports that rely primarily on govenrment documents and quotes.

In any case, if we're talking about criteria that pro bono lawyers use to choose their clients, I'd rather they represent people who are involved in efforts that help their own cases but also strive to change the laws and procedures that are treating them unfairly. These folks are a good example. Probably helps the most people--innocent and otherwise--in the long run.

Punjabi Boy, Apu did go to jail once... (for public nudity I think)

LoL

I have got to watch that episode.

Abhi, you think the government never starts out using tactics against the most indefensible people in order to extend them later to people you might sympathize with a bit more?

Thats besides the point. I don't want to commit another wrong just to right the system. The "wrong" here is applying "good karma" logic to defend them because they are brown.

The "wrong" here is applying "good karma" logic to defend them because they are brown.

Yeah, I agree. Except if they were targeted for being brown. Which they may have been (but it's unclear).

Anyway, as I articulated above, I think "good karma" logic sucks. People should just do the right thing, politically, because it makes sense. Like not reading National Review as a news source :)

I personally will always have sympathy for the workers of convenience store.
I used to work at one convenience store while going to Grad school. (This is a while back ..about a decade).
- A couple of other students were also working here. It was illegal as students were not allowed to work outside campus(if they are on F1 visa) but to pay for tuition a lot of us did it.
- In another shift there was a student whom I knew, worked. One evening the Cops had placed a trap on the store.
- They sent a really mature looking young man to buy beer in the store. As evenings were very busy time, the clerk did not check the ID before selling beer.
- Immediately Cops came in and placed this poor fellow under arrest and took him to a local holding cell.
- He called my roommate whom he was a good freinds with. Fortunately at the time my cousin was visiting (He is older). So my cousin went to the station along with my roommate.
- He was so shaken up that he couldnt even speak. They put a class B misdemeanor on his record.

I dont know, If you ask me this is not the best use of the law inforcement dollor.

Saurav, from my reading on this issue, these stores are big part of the problem. Georgia Law prohibits sale of more than 3 containers of cold medicine per customer. When these stores violate the law, they make it easier for Meth cooks to make drugs. When they conveniently stock all the items required for meth on a shelf in their stores, it's downright criminal. If a meth cook had to go to 50 stores to get enough ingredients may be the meth production would slow down and the price would go up. If guilty, a term of 10 years is about right.. in a Federal 'Pound me in the Ass' prison. At least that seems to be the precedent.

I don't live somewhere where meth addiction is a huge problem, so I don't fully understand all the dimensions of this problem or its magnitude. That said, while convenience stores might be a big part of the problem, all you've done is lay out a bunch of legal arguments and some details about one production chain of meth. This says nothing about why people do meth, whether or not shutting down these stores will lead to the end of production in the area, higher meth prices due to more difficulty in obtaining materials, or, as I imagine, some other mechanism by which people who would have become meth users can destroy their lives. What's the benefit to taxpayers or would-be meth users who have now been "saved" if this just leads to deportations and harsh jail sentences with limited reduction in meth use or, more broadly, in the root causes of self-destruction? An extended prison term, as you so eloquently described it, seems kind of horrible for a convenience store owner or employee guilty of a crime that's fairly non-violent (even if it's part of a big social problem).

More broadly, I just don't believe that people should be sent to what currently constitute our jails (and certainly not deported) unless it's really, really necessary in a utilitarian sense (i.e. they need to be separated from other people). And even then, most of the time (i.e. for non Ted Bundys), confinement for treatment is probably a better option than confinement for retribution's sake alone (or even in combination with an attempt to raise the cost of criminal activity).

When the people we elect to run the country start following a "social contract" or other ethical model of behavior in practice rather than in words alone, that's when I'll consent to it.

-s

This is the same thing as the famed "Drug War" that consecutive US administrations "fight". Basically, kill all the Columbians and anyone else who is producing this, but not do anything to curb the demand.
When a black man is caught with some drugs he will be imprisoned because it will be deemed that he intended to distribute, but when a white man/woman is caught with the drugs .. just slap on the wrist ..possesion or sometimes no prosecution ... nothing....
Goes to show for whom the law is written ...

Does anyone know the "convenience store demographics" (as Abhi put it) of both the area in question and nationwide? 43 of 49 does seem awfully high. Given all the convenience stores I've hopped into in my life, I can't imagine near 85% of them were operated by Indians; perhaps ownership is a different matter.

I've seen demographic info on the ownership of hotels/motels on this site in the past, so I imagine similar data might be out there somewhere for convenience stores.

In one of the articles linked to on this thread, one Peter Crosby "noted there were individuals arrested that had American names." Would Peter Patel or John Patel count? Just wondering.

And in general, do folks believe that a desi minimart owner is more likely to engage in shady tactics than any other ethnicity? I mean, I've known some suspect Indian uncles, but my sample set there is pretty small - northeast Louisiana is not particularly a hotbed of Indian activity.

Saurav - meth is a major problem in rural and suburban communities and it is bad, bad, bad. The meth labs produce really hazardous and toxic materials that not only endanger the 'cook', but the local environment, surrounding people, and most especially and sadly, children."Meth kids' are heart-breaking, but then so is any kid who is neglected because their parents use.

Here's one link.

I have no idea what is going on in this case: I can only hope justice is served. It seems there may be a mix of types - some people who were actively complicit and really did know and were turning a blind eye, and maybe some who really didn't know what was going on, and shouldn't have been rounded up. But, again, it's hard to know from the information we have. I agree with Rohan: what is the demographic? This seems like an awfully high number (43/49).

I have no sympathy for anyone who turns a blind eye to drugs - my ex-husband was a user and even with the best treatment in the world he didn't stop using. The sad thing is many in the desi community brush this kind of stuff under the rug. His family, well-educated and well-to-do, didn't really want him to get treatment and didn't take it seriously. They just wanted to make sure none of the aunties or uncles found out. It makes me furious.

Meth kids

"The five children ranged in age from 1 to 7 years. The one bedroom home had no electricity or heat other than a gas stove with the oven door opened. Used hypodermic needles and feces littered areas of the residence where the children were staying. Because there were no beds for the children, they slept with blankets under a small card table in the front room. The bathroom had sewage backed up in the tub, leaving no place for the children to bathe. A subsequent exam revealed that all the children were infected with hepatitis C. The youngest was very ill. His liver was enlarged to the size of an adult's. The children had needle marks on their legs, hands and arms from accidental contact with syringes."

Of course, this is no excuse for rounding up potentially innocent people, but, like I said: it is sick, sick stuff. 15-20% of labs are found because they explode from the toxic, unstable by-products.

In re to Abhi, after reading some more details of the case (i.e the timeline and knowledge, I would like to take back my request for people out there to do pro bono work for these guys). They could very well have been running a very serious ring.

But I don't take back the idea that this is a systemic issue, and picking on the end result of a system that essentially condones the abuse of a very dangerous drug in the name of profits is wrong. This is precisely the role for good government to fill - to come in and determine what levels of sale equate fair and legal consumer use, versus dangerous criminal misuse.

BTW, I have no intention to make "opponenents submit" - that's not my goal whatsoever. We live in a society that is bereft of passionate, well-informed discussion. I like heated discussions, as that brings us closer to the some kind of understanding.

I like the idea of a "truthmissile" - it's a play on words of the "Patriot Missile" - I'm highly critical of the War Industry in this country, and see it as more of a problem than a solution to anything. It really doesn't do any "defending." I'd rather have a lot more "truthmissiles" in this country, than the kind that kill innocent people.

peace:

They probably knew what was going on and just looked the other way, because they didn't really think of it as a serious offence.

I think that this operation was effective in the sense it will raise awareness amongst risk-averse store owners, and put a major damper on the sale of meth.

Though luck for the 49 people arrested though.

stupid tangential question:

you'd find a rose inside a test-tube looking holder,

uh. . .what do you need a rose for when doing cocaine? or brillo pads for that matter? sorry. . .my knowledge being limited to movies, i thought a mirror and a business card would suffice . . .

I believe you throw away the rose and just use the florists tube

DesiDancer's right - they don't need the rose, just the test tube. And according to this website, you use the brillo pad as a screen.

Not that I know anything about smoking crack....

/proud to be drug free

/proud to be drug free

You don't drink? ;)

Anyway, can we draw a line between things that really ought not be put in the category of "those awful, horrible drugs" and those that should? There's nothing worse than seeing fine video production and taxpayer money work wasted on anti-marijuana ads.

Of course, this is no excuse for rounding up potentially innocent people, but, like I said: it is sick, sick stuff. 15-20% of labs are found because they explode from the toxic, unstable by-products.

MD, thanks for the information. It confirmed and expanded what little I had read before, thereby frightening me. So I curled up in the fetal position.

In any case, I think the more I learn about this, the more I will come to my inevitable conclusion about these kinds of law enforcement efforts--they're fairly fruitless, use up resources, and don't address whatever the underlying causes of meth use are.

It's amazing how the people in charge of "The War On Drugs" just totally throw out any understanding of basic economics and psychology when they try to figure out how to stop what I would imagine is essentially a consumer problem driven by poverty, boredom, lack of or poor mental health provision, lack of opportunity, bad information or misinformation, blah blah blah. It's not like reducing the homegrown supply of meth or coke or anything else reduces the underlying causes of self-destruction (or does anything to stop flow of meth from superlabs).

How do you rank drugs based on safety? I haven't tried all these drugs, but my recollection of safety first to last...

How about this ranking:
1. Marijuana
2. Caffeine
3. Magic Mushrooms
4. LSD
5. Alcohol
6. Cocaine/Crack/Meth
7. Heroin/Oxycontin/Vicodin Pharmaceuticals
8. PCP

We can all agree that Meth is just terrible...I know the Gita says we shouldn't use any type of drug, but then someone pointed out that Marijuana was one of Shiva's favored herbs - maybe marijuana was considered a medicine back then?
This was discussion we had on it...
http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/001661.html

Marijuana was one of Shiva's favored herbs? No wonder his prick is worshipped even to this day!

Truthmissile,
The fact that you listed Mary Jane as less of a threat than caffeine (which I find absurd and would be more than happy to debate with you) tells me that you probably indulge in the stuff quite often. Invoking Shiva to justify your use is a classic sign of addiction. :)

As for me, I prefer caffeine.

but then someone pointed out that Marijuana was one of Shiva's favored herbs - maybe marijuana was considered a medicine back then?

Ummm... not. How about Gita 3:24

naitat samacarej jatu
manasapi hy anisvarah
vinasyaty acaran maudhyad
yatha ’rudro ’bdhi-jam visam

isvaranam vacah satyam
tathaivacaritam kvacit
tesam yat sva-vaco-yuktam
buddhimams tat samacaret

"One should simply follow the instructions of the Lord and His empowered servants. Their instructions are all good for us, and any intelligent person will perform them as instructed. However, one should guard against trying to imitate their actions. One should not try to drink the ocean of poison in imitation of Lord Siva."

We should always consider the position of the isvaras, or those who can actually control the movements of the sun and moon, as superior. Without such power, one cannot imitate the isvaras, who are superpowerful. Lord Siva drank poison to the extent of swallowing an ocean, but if any common man tries to drink even a fragment of such poison, he will be killed. There are many pseudo devotees of Lord Siva who want to indulge in smoking ganja (marijuana) and similar intoxicating drugs, forgetting that by so imitating the acts of Lord Siva they are calling death very near. Similarly, there are some pseudo devotees of Lord Krsna who prefer to imitate the Lord in His rasa-lila, or dance of love, forgetting their inability to lift Govardhana Hill. It is best, therefore, that one not try to imitate the powerful, but simply follow their instructions; nor should one try to occupy their posts without qualification. There are so many "incarnations" of God without the power of the Supreme Godhead.

I am involved in the case. It appears that the "informant" was a jailbird cutting a deal for himself.
At least some of the store clerks were cautious and selling only the legal limit of the items that can be used to manufacture meth. The grocery list is quite extensive. If the informant muttered "I'm going to cook some meth," then I doubt if many understood what he was talking about.

Local With Knowledge (I like your handle, btw :), can you tell us where we can find out more? Do you know more?

I'm curious about how this all actually played out (as opposed to what the government's saying so far and what hte media is inexplicably largely regurgitating).

-s

Looks like the sceptics were right after all.

Cultural Differences Complicate a Georgia Drug Sting Operation

When they charged 49 convenience store clerks and owners in rural northwest Georgia with selling materials used to make methamphetamine, federal prosecutors declared that they had conclusive evidence. Hidden microphones and cameras, they said, had caught the workers acknowledging that the products would be used to make the drug.

Malvika Patel, left, and her husband, Chirag, in Ringgold, Ga. Ms. Patel spent three days in jail in a drug case before being cleared. The authorities had accused her of selling a medicine used to make methamphetamine. But weeks of court motions have produced many questions. Forty-four of the defendants are Indian immigrants - 32, mostly unrelated, are named Patel - and many spoke little more than the kind of transactional English mocked in sitcoms.

So when a government informant told store clerks that he needed the cold medicine, matches and camping fuel to "finish up a cook," some of them said they figured he must have meant something about barbecue. The case of Operation Meth Merchant illustrates another difficulty for law enforcement officials fighting methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that can be made with ordinary grocery store items.

Many states, including Georgia, have recently enacted laws restricting the sale of common cold medicines like Sudafed, and nationwide, the police are telling merchants to be suspicious of sales of charcoal, coffee filters, aluminum foil and Kitty Litter. Walgreens agreed this week to pay $1.3 million for failing to monitor the sale of over-the-counter cold medicine that was bought by a methamphetamine dealer in Texas.

But the case here is also complicated by culture. Prosecutors have had to drop charges against one defendant they misidentified, presuming that the Indian woman inside the store must be the same Indian woman whose name appeared on the registration for a van parked outside, and lawyers have gathered evidence arguing that another defendant is the wrong Patel. The biggest problem, defense lawyers say, is the language barrier between an immigrant store clerk and the undercover informants who used drug slang or quick asides to convey that they were planning to make methamphetamine.

"They're not really paying attention to what they're being told," said Steve Sadow, one of the lawyers. "Their business is: I ring it up, you leave, I've done my job. Call it language or idiom or culture, I'm not sure you're able to show they know there's anything wrong with what they're doing." For the Indians, their lives largely limited to store and home, it is as if they have fallen through a looking glass into a world they were content to keep on the other side of the cash register.

"This is the first time I heard this - I don't know how to pronounce - this meta-meta something," said Hajira Ahmed, whose husband is in jail pending charges that he sold cold medicine and antifreeze at their convenience store on a winding road near the Tennessee border. But David Nahmias, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said the evidence showed that the clerks knew that the informants posing as customers planned to make drugs. Federal law makes it illegal to sell products knowing, or with reason to believe, that they will be used to produce drugs. In these cases, lawyers say, defendants face up to 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

In one instance, Mr. Nahmias said, a store owner in Whitfield County pulled out a business card from a Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent and told the informant that he was supposed to contact the agent if someone requested large amounts of the materials. When the informant asked if he would call, Mr. Nahmias said, the owner replied, "No, you are my customer." "It's not that they should have known," Mr. Nahmias said. "In virtually or maybe all of the cases, they did know."

Like many prosecutors, Mr. Nahmias describes methamphetamine, a highly potent drug that can be injected, ingested or inhaled, as the biggest drug problem in his district. While only about a third of the meth here is made in small labs - the majority of the drug used in this country comes from so-called superlabs in Mexico - those small labs can be highly explosive, posing a danger to children, the environment and the police departments that are forced to clean them up. Their sources, he said, are local convenience stores.

"While those people may not think they're causing any harm, the harm they cause is tremendous," Mr. Nahmias said. "We really wanted to send the message that if you get into that line of business, selling products that you know are going to be used to make meth, you're going to go to prison." Operation Meth Merchant started, Mr. Nahmias said, with complaints from local sheriffs that certain stores were catering to the labs. Prosecutors paid confidential informants - some former convicts, others offered the promise of lighter punishment for pending charges - to buy products in stores in six counties beginning in early 2004, and drop hints that they were making drugs.

Defense lawyers said some of the defendants probably did know what they were doing when they sold the materials. But on several tapes, provided by the government to the lawyers, who played them for a reporter, it was not always clear that the people behind the counter understood. One recording captures an informant who walked into the Tobacco and Beverage Mart in Trenton, Ga., and asked for Pseudo 60, a particularly potent brand of cold medicine, which contains pseudoephedrine, the key ingredient of methamphetamine. The clerk, Mangesh Patel, 55, said the store no longer carried it. "Police guy came here said don't sell," Mr. Patel said. "Misuse. Public misuse."

The informant replied: "I know what they're doing with it, because that's what I'm going to do with it." "Yah," Mr. Patel replied, "public misuse."
When the informant found another bottle of pills that he said might work, Mr. Patel told him he could sell only two, under orders from "the police guy." The informant asked if his friend could come in and buy two more. "Yeah," Mr. Patel replied, "But I cannot sell two to one guy."

Defense lawyers say the Indians were simply being good merchants and obeying what they believed was the letter of the law. Several refused to sell more than two bottles of cold medicine, citing store policy. They were charged, prosecutors say, because they allowed the "customers" to come back the next day for more. Prosecutors say that should have made it clear to the clerks that the buyers were up to no good.

In some cases, the language barriers seem obvious - one videotape shows cold medicine stacked next to a sign saying, "Cheek your change befor you leave a counter." Investigators footnoted court papers to explain that the clue the informants dropped most often - that they were doing "a cook" - is a "common term" meth makers use. Lawyers argue that if the courts could not be expected to understand what this meant, neither could immigrants with a limited grasp of English.

"This is not even slang language like 'gonna,' 'wanna,' " said Malvika Patel, who spent three days in jail before being cleared this month. " 'Cook' is very clear; it means food." And in this context, she said, some of the items the government wants stores to monitor would not set off any alarms. "When I do barbecue, I have four families. I never have enough aluminum foil."

According to court records, prosecutors first identified Ms. Patel as the woman who sold two bottles of cold medicine to an informant in Fort Oglethorpe, Ga., because her name appeared on the registration of a van parked outside. But the driver of the van worked for a company, owned by her and her husband, that installs security cameras, and Ms. Patel produced records showing that she was picking her son up at a day care center in Tennessee at the moment she was said to be in Georgia.

Her misidentification has fueled the belief among the Indians that investigators were operating on cultural bias. This corner of the state is still largely white; Indians began moving here about 10 years ago, buying hotels and then convenience stores, and some whites still say, mistakenly, that "Patel" means "hotel" in Hindi.

"They want to destroy all Indian businesses," said Ms. Ahmed, whose husband is in jail. "Because they hate us, or I don't know." Mr. Nahmias said he was willing to consider evidence of language barriers when the cases went to trial later this year. But he denied singling out any group. "We follow the evidence where it goes," he said.

Still, the case has set off ripples from the green ridges here to the Indian state of Gujarat, the traditional homeland of Patels, where newspapers have carried articles about the arrests. "We go into temple and they look at you - it's a bad image right now," said Dilip Patel, who owns one of the stores involved. "If I have to go to the City Hall to do some paper, they see me 'Patel,' they look at me I'm a hard man, I'm a bad guy."

Malvika Patel's husband, who has Americanized his name from Chirag to Chris, says his wife's arrest made him think about selling his three stores and leaving the country. "We are from so much cleaner society where we are from in India," he said. "We didn't even know what drugs were."

Ms. Patel says she has tried to shield herself from the ugly aspects of life here - she does not read newspapers because she wearies of all the crime. Maybe, she said, that was a mistake. "I think you need all this bad knowledge now if you want to live here."

There have been three persons of Indian descent now that have been misidentified, according to a local attorney who is one county away from me. He represented the woman Malvika Patel and now represents a man allegedly in my county who was also misidentified. He was in New York working at a sandwich shop when they said he was in Georgia selling components of methamphetamine.
On the news it was being said that a lot was being assumed about what these clerks "knew".

meth is probably the #1 cause of burglaries and property crimes (including against small business)

Poorly cited and unsupported statistics are probably the #1 cause of terrorism and other bad things.

I think that anybody that would ever do meth is retarted cause it just wastes there time. I have seen to many people almost die an one of them is my cuz an the reason i say that is because he got up to 70 pounds an he is two months older than me an i turn 16 in may now thats BAD YOU TELL ME IF IT ANT

I know there was an interesting thread on the topic of the South Asian convenience store merchants who were rounded up in June 2005. I thought those who wrote in would be interested in this statement which came out today. (By the way, 75% of convenience stores in North Georgia are owned by whites, which does suggest racial profiling here...) There's actions you can take if you think so too...

Stop the Racially Targeted Prosecutions of
South Asian Merchants in Operation Meth Merchant

The Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant will be holding a press event at the Asian American Convenience Stores Association (778 Dekalb Industrial Way, Decatur, GA) on Sunday, January 8, 2006 at 1:30 pm to protest the U.S. DEA's unlawful and unfair targeting of South Asian convenience store owners.

Operation Meth Merchant is the name given by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to their latest effort in the federal government's crack down on communities of color as part of this country's War on Drugs. In northwest Georgia in July, a dozen, mostly white, English-speaking informants convicted of possessing, producing, and selling an illegal drug called methamphetamine (meth) were promised reductions in their prison sentences if they assisted with successful prosecutions of store clerks from whom they bought the ingredients to create meth.

The racial targeting of South Asians and prosecutorial blunders in this operation are outrageous. Even though the majority of convenience store owners in the area are white, the prosecutions and informants specifically targeted the Indian community. Forty-four of the forty-nine people indicted are South Asian, and thirty-three of them have the last name Patel. At least one of these confidential informants has a history of fraud convictions. A couple of the cases have been dropped because an informant obviously misidentified the store clerks.

The DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) either targeted these stores or they're just incompetent, said Dan Horowitz de Garcia, an organizer with Communities United for Action, Power & Justice, a state criminal justice coalition. During this time, Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, and Costco all were selling charcoal and cold medicine in large quantities. It's clear the agency wasn't trying to stop meth production--they were trying to get easy convictions.

The store clerks and shop owners, many of whom do not speak fluent English, were indicted for allegedly knowing that the products they were selling would be used to create meth. Meth is a highly addictive stimulant that can be made using everyday, legal household products such as Sudafed, Tylenol Cold capsules, and Max Brand Pseudo 60s. These medicines are legal, over-the-counter products that are bought all over the country.

Those indicted are not only facing up to 25 years in prison, forfeiture of their stores and fines of up to $250,000, they are likely to be deported as well. U.S. immigration laws allow deportation of people convicted of drug-related crimes, despite their ties to the community, American-born children with U.S. citizenship, or long-time residency in this country. Based on questionable evidence, these prosecutions are tearing families apart and doing nothing to stop the meth problem in Georgia. My mom, wife, and everybody are just crying all day long, said one of the merchants affected. I cannot even sleep. I have been on house arrest for 7 months. I feel so terrible.... I don't have the income to pay all these [fines].... They just hate us.

Since the early 1980's, the United States' rate of incarceration has grown exponentially. We now have the world's largest prison population, with 2.1 million people behind bars, 1/3 of whom are there for nonviolent drug-related offenses. This number represents more people behind bars than all the European nations combined. Numerically, the majority of people that use and sell drugs are white, yet the vast majority of people convicted and incarcerated for drug-related offenses are people of color.

The War on Drugs has been devastating the most marginalized communities for years, said Priyanka Sinha, a staff person with Raksha, an organization based in Atlanta that provides a range of services for the South Asian community. Black communities, poor communities have all been hit hard. We know we have to fight back or the same will happen here.

The Asian American Convenience Store Association (AACSA), Communities United for Action, Power & Justice, Queer Progressive Agenda (QPA), Raksha, South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT), and the Southern Center for Human Rights (SCHR) have formed a coalition called The Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant to stop the unlawful and unjust prosecutions of South Asian convenience store owners in North Georgia.Upendra Patel, a coalition member from AACSA, says The South Asian community stands united with allies to speak out against the racially biased enforcement of drug laws and the unfair targeting of our community members. It is time for the government's lawyers to do the right thing and drop the prosecutions.

The Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant is mobilizing to stop these racially targeted prosecutions. Many of the people arrested will be in court on Tuesday, January 10, 2006. The coalition will be holding a press event at Asian American Convenience Stores Association (778 Dekalb Industrial Way, Decatur, GA) on Sunday, January 8, 2006 at 1:30 pm to protest the U.S. DEA's unlawful and unfair targeting of South Asian convenience store owners. In addition, the campaign is organizing support for the court date.

People in the community need to know they aren't alone, said Sinha. We are mobilizing the South Asian community as well as all communities concerned with justice across Georgia. We won't take this lying down.

Take Action!

1. Sign the Online Petition. Support the campaign by signing the online petition against Operation Meth Merchant, at http://www.petitiononline.com/stopomm/petition.html
2. Stay updated about the campaign. Join on our yahoogroup, by sending an email to RacialJusticeCampaignAgainstOMM-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
3. Attend the Media Rally on January 8th. Come to the Asian American Convenience Stores Association, at 778 Dekalb Industrial Way, at 1:30 pm on January 8th to join the protest against the unjust targeting of South Asian store owners and clerks. Help spread the word by printing and distributing the flyer attached.
4. Join the Campaign. If you belong to an organization that wants to help stop the prosecutions under Operation Meth Merchant, or need more information, contact Deepali, organizer for the Racial Justice Campaign Against Operation Meth Merchant, at StopOMM@mindspring.com or 404.822.5090.

don't forget to sign the petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/stopomm/petition.html

I had heard the story with the ***Finishing up a Cook*** line as well, so the most recently posted version is the one I read.

I agree that most people wouldn’t have a clue what finishing up a cook means

It is also interesting that Indians especially in the South are pro Republican, there is nothing like a few unwarranted arrests to suddenly alert everyone to the value of the Bill of Rights.

We can run ads in the Indian papers, Bill of Rights, not just a liberal nuisance ya know.

Sorry about that, hehehheheheh.

It looks quite clearly that many of these are unwarranted prosecutions, but it also raises larger questions, like are convenience store clerks supposed to be law enforcement people and what is their response supposed to be when perfectly ordinary household items are being purchased.

The fact that it is an Indian community makes it all the more interesting, it's not exactly Billy the Kidd or Bonnie and Clyde we are talking about.

I’ll be following it closely and I will sign the petitition.

Desi Dikri, ciao for now yall.

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